What a difference a year makes

Sunday, May 19, 2013

One year ago I ran the Inaugural Rock n' Roll Portland Half Marathon. Actually, I ran, walked, stumbled, slogged the whole thing, and it is pretty amazing that I forced myself across the finish line. I had planned out all the places on the route where I could drop out and get to my BF at that time's apartment. I had 3 places where I knew I could quit if I couldn't run it all. By the time I finished, I was in tears, my posterior tibial tendon was screaming at me loud enough to make me think I had done some serious damage, and my friend Kate hauled me to the medics who wrapped my ankle in ice packs. My finish time was actually a not too shabby 3:07:03, considering the pain I was in for the final 5 miles!

Fast forward one year.
It's been a year, quite a year! I ran my fastest 5k time ever in January. Within a week of that, I was sitting in an orthopedic's office waiting to hear how much damage I'd done to myself...this time though it was my arm. I'd run in a night time fun run, and found the one dip in the road...and fractured my elbow attempting to break my fall. My next 8 weeks of Marathon training was done with the walking group. When I was finally able to go out without a 2.5 lb splint on my arm in late March, I began attempting a run/walk with the training group, and slowly ran my mid week short runs, SLOWLY.
Mostly on the trails.
Because it's easier on my legs, and I HAVE to run slowly.
Amazingly, I've managed to do more running than walking on my long Sunday runs with the group, and ran almost all of our 18 miler, even though it was beastly hot! Anything over 70 degrees counts for beastly around here.

When the opportunity arose to purchase a bib from a woman who wasn't going to run it (shhh...don't tell Rock n' Roll), I figured I would take it; if only to see how I could do in an actual competitive group setting.
The woman I purchased the bib from was expecting to finish in less than 2 hours. I doubt I'll ever be able to accomplish that! Anyway, her bib had her in Corral 6. I knew if I started there, I'd have several thousand angry runners being forced to work their way around me. There are always corral jumpers in races, those people who put themselves in a pace group they have no right to be in...I wasn't going to be one of them.
I started looking for the pacers with their red lizards (it's a flag in the shape of a lizard, red of course, with the pace runner's expected finish time). I found the 2:45 pacer, never saw a 3:00 pacer, so placed myself 2 corrals back from the 2:45, hoping I could keep up.
20 minutes after the gun, corral 17 finally crossed the starting mat, and I kept the pace for the first 4 miles. I am sure I pushed myself a bit too hard on the first two, my splits were 11:37 and 11:53, but I felt good. Not sure when exactly I passed the Red Lizard, but I never saw her again.
Around mile 4 I saw a friend from last years training group, and I did a run-walk with her. She runs much faster than I, but with a 4 minute run and a 2 minute walk, I kept up just fine. when we reached the hilly portion of Hawthorne Blvd, 596 foot gain over that mile, I left her behind as I've found I have to run up the hills, walking just slows me down too much and doesn't help me recover from the hills any better.

Between mile 10 and 11 I finally allowed myself to glance at my garmin to see where I was, and I realized that even if I walked the rest of the race, I would come in under 3 hours. When L asked me how long I expected it to take, I told him I was hoping for between 2 and 3/4 hours, and 3...but as long as I finished in under 3 hours, I'd be happy.
Over mile's 11 and 12, we had more hills to deal with, right when I was beginning to feel the rise in the temp. I was wondering if I'd pushed myself too hard, but still ran up all three of the short hills, then allowed myself a short walk break on the Steel Bridge. From the Bridge to the 13 mile marker I kept a steady 12-12:20 pace, and the last .15 to the finish I had enough left in me to push it up to a 10:45 pace! Shocking (thrilling) for the little amount of running I've been doing and how slow it has been.
My fastest Half Marathon previous to today was 2:49:57 way back in 2009. My next fastest was 2:58:29 in 2010. It has all been downhill from there...until today. Official ( I believe) finish time 2:43:10!!! I was hopeful and would have been perfectly happy with between 2:53 and 3, but instead I did even better than what I'd told my BF would be my best finish time for the day.

This makes me feel a whole lot better over the idea of running my Marathon next month! But first, next week's 20 miler.

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Scavenger Hunt

Sunday, April 28, 2013

the Silver Spies are having a scavenger hunt, Sea Shells and Sea Horses. I found the shells right in my own bedroom, but could find nary a Sea Horse.

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Ragnar Bound

Monday, April 08, 2013

I will be running Ragnar Southern California relay race in less than 2 weeks. Up until yesterday, I was very worried about my ability to keep up, and had seriously thought several times that I should back out. But…I’m stubborn.
I want to run this relay!
I’ve backed out of one relay in the past and wasn’t going to do that again. This year decided I would commit to only 2 races. Ragnar, and the Vancouver USA Marathon. I have not signed up for a single other race (yet), because I feel that in the past I’ve jinxed myself by planning out an entire year of races ahead of time.

Back to Ragnar.

For anyone new to my blog, I broke my elbow the first week of Marathon training in January. I took a tumble during a night time fun run, and put myself out of (running) commission until recently. The orthopedic approved walking for the first 4 weeks, then approved running as long as I wore my splint. Well, even with attempting to balance the weight, it wasn’t an option to run with a 2.5# splint on my arm. I knew I was doing some damage to my shoulder wearing it to even do my long walks. I also knew I wasn’t giving up on another marathon or another relay, and that I had to do what I could to maintain some semblance of fitness.

After 10 weeks the Dr finally released me to do pretty much everything, except lift weight heavier than 10 lbs. Finally, back to what I consider “Real” training. Now, please don’t think I’m discounting what the walkers do. I am amazed at the difference in muscles used to walk 13 miles vs. running 13 miles. I’ve also fully accepted that I will be walking a good portion on the marathon. On the other hand, I did NOT want to accept that I would also be walking a good portion of my relay legs!

Since the Dr. released me, I’ve been doing 2 short runs and one long each week, plus time on the elliptical, keeping my focus on Marathon training. MY marathon training includes walk breaks. Lots of them. Quite often within less than ¼ mile….that is, until yesterday.

Yesterday I joined two ladies who are going out with the walking group, but running at a very slow 13+mm pace. When I’ve been running on my own, I’ve been slowing back to around a 11:30mm pace. Before I fell, I was averaging 11mm, so I figured slowing that much should be good enough. Duh…I should have thought again when I couldn’t maintain 12's for more than a half mile. Yesterday I figured I’d run a half mile, walk a couple blocks, run a half mile, etc. I knew if these two were trying to maintain a 13-13:30 pace I’d be able to at least keep them in sight for the first 5 or so miles of the route.

The first 2 miles were from the Hilton, which is close to the river, to my neighborhood in NW. Steady uphill the whole way, with a 200 ft elevation gain. We ran at about a 13:20 pace. As we came up to Fourth Plain Blvd I heard my Garmin chirp, and realized I’d just run a full mile without walking. I figured we would be stopped at Fourth Plain for the light, but no, it turned green immediately after we reached the intersection so my run continued on… The two mile mark was at 45th Street, where we turned to head toward the freeway. Again I was shocked…I hadn’t run this far since the week before my tumble. I also knew this was the easy part, as we got to head downhill for a bit. Down the hill and across two intersections, again with very little stop time for the lights to change, not enough to make a difference in my heart rate at least. Up a short hill and across the pedestrian bridge at the freeway, and down into the park…and lo and behold at the far end of the park I still had not stopped to walk. There is a hateful hill at the east end of Leverich Park, that I rarely run up. Yesterday I found myself at the top of it with amazingly little effort. I finally slowed and took my first walk break at just past 4 miles. From that point on, I was running approx. ½ mile, then taking a short walk break. I had thought I would lose sight of the two women I was with, but was either with them, or at most 3-5 blocks behind them, all the way back to the Hilton.

I now know that I CAN run my Ragnar legs, or at least run enough of them to maintain the 13 minute pace that I updated to after I fell. I know that I should be able to run at least ½ of the marathon, and walk the balance at a decent pace. Best of all, I know I can once again run the majority of 11 miles and feel terrific the next day!

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14 miles on the Wildwood - in pictures.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

I had Friday off work, and since it was such a beautiful day,decided to do my long run/walk of the week in Forest Park. For those of you who haven't been introduced to the Park yet, Forest Park is located within the city of Portland Oregon. It runs for over 30 miles from the Oregon Zoo to the far wilderness Northwest following the hillside ridges above the city's west side.
My apologies in advance for the blur to many of my photos. I ran many of the uphills, and bringing my heart rate down to take a photo was not an option if I wanted to finish this run/hike in decent time.

Spring has officially arrived in Portland, the Trillium are up and blanket much of the trailside!


And now I'll allow the trail to speak for itself. I ran an out and back from Lower Macleay park in Northwest Portland, heading north on the trail.

Where I came from.

one of many bridges that cross creeks along the trail.

And below a series of photos of ferns growing on the moss on the side of a Douglas Fir.





Where I turned around


The hill I had to slog back up after the turn around.

I came from down there.



one of the 1/4 mile markers, thank you Portland Parks department for repainting the diamonds!

Downtown


Another hill to be run up!


And one to be run down.


I didn't see a single slug along the trail this outing, which has never happened before...so...in keeping with the Pacific NW attitude, here's a photo from last year. I MUST share our slugs with all in the rest of the country who don't have the joy of dealing with them on a pretty much daily basis.

I know, I know, I have an evil streak, don't I?

For any who have read Wildwood by Colin Meloy (lead singer of the Decemberists), I picture this as being the entrance to the Coyote's Den. Colin lives quite near the Wildwood Trail, and has probably spent more time on it than I.


And then...the drive home...

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What's on my Mind?

Monday, March 11, 2013

One of the options for this week's BLC weekend challenge is to write a "what's on my mind" blog...Oh My!!! This could be trouble. I always have so many thoughts zooming around in there, hiding behind doors, peeking out and then jumping back to hide some more...they play tag with each other; taking turns being it...they run races to see who will win today...they climb on each other's shoulders trying to make it to the top of the heap, only to fall down and end up being the base for the next climber...you get the picture, totally unorganized chaos!

So....on my mind today.

Met with the Ex BF - yes, you read that right...he's an expert in his field and I trust his ability - to go over a preliminary design for my front yard, or front garden as he would say - he had some good ideas, many things I hadn't thought of, and we came up with some basics and a couple solids. He will be back in a week or two to prune my Japanese maple to get it all started. So I have a lot to think about there.

Had my annual review today. Mine was the first given, and I swear she said she was starting at the top and working her way down. YIPES for the co-workers if that is true. I got 2 exceptionals, and the rest were meets expectations. For the more subjective portion of the review, culture, I received 4 "walks the talk" and two "models the walk". So...this is of course on my mind. How can I do better next year, how can I meet my goals, what extras can I build into my goals to get better, but not too much better, for 2013. And of course, is this good enough to get as decent a raise as I got last year? I kind of doubt it, but it's good enough to get a raise. Where I work all raises are based on merit only, no such thing as a cost of living increase!

Of course this past weekend is on my mind...had a blast in Seattle with L, and enjoyed the time spent together immensely. Saw some great art, ate some wonderful food, and walked lots of miles seeing the sites.

My remodeling projects that MUST be started this year. Windows, siding, roof, and bathroom. How to go about hiring someone, getting estimates, all that fun stuff. I hate to think about it, but it all must be done and soon!

And then there's what I am trying NOT to have on my mind...broken arm, possible surgery, not running, races, relay...these things I'm going to be Scarlett and I'll think about them tomorrow.

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